In this week's Privacy Tracker legislative roundup, read about a new bill aimed at giving the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada regulatory powers. In Kenya, the chairperson of the Committee on Information, Communication and Technology presented a data protection bill that would change how public and private entities handle personal data. In Uganda, there are calls to pass the Privacy and Data Protection Bill of 2015 as concerns are raised over the government's new surveillance plans. And in the U.S., the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in the Carpenter v. United States case, finding that the government generally must have a warrant to gather location data from cellphones; and California state legislators introduced a bill to address concerns about data breach security and privacy.
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Kenya’s Data Protection Bill, 2018, presented by chairperson of the Committee on Information, Communication and Technology Gideon Moi, looks to change how public and private entities handle people's personal information, The Standard Digital reports.
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In response to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s new surveillance plan, which includes monitoring social media, mandatory DNA tests and the implementation of car tracking devices, cyber rights group Unwanted Witness Uganda is calling for Parliament to urgently pass the Privacy and Data Protection Bill, 2015 into law, ChimpReports writes.
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A group of California state legislators introduced a bill to address concerns about data breach security and internet privacy experienced by California consumers, the Times-Herald Online reports.
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A new bill in Illinois, passed by both the House and Senate, awaits approval by Gov. Bruce Rauner. The bill raises privacy concerns as it would send notifications to employers when a fingerprinted employee gets in trouble with the law anywhere within the U.S., the Daily Illini reports.
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US
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the government generally must have a warrant to gather location data from cellphones, The New York Times reports.
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection filed a comment to the Consumer Product Safety Commission on the risks associated with internet-of-things devices.
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights released guidance on patients sharing their health information for research, GovInfoSecurity reports.
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The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill aligning the privacy protections provided to substance-use-disorder patients with the HIPAA Privacy Rule, HealthITSecurity reports.
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The Los Angeles Times reports California Democrats have reached a tentative agreement with real estate mogul Alastair Mactaggart that would "enact major new consumer privacy rules in exchange for the withdrawal" of a robust privacy initiative that was set to go on the November ballot.
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A new data protection ordinance has been placed in front of the Chicago City Council, Hunton Andrews Kurth Privacy & Information Security Law Blog reports.
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The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has been ordered to pay the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights $4.3 million for HIPAA violations.
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CANADA
Bill C-413 has been introduced aimed at giving the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada regulatory powers, iPolitics reports.
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A report from the House of Commons ethics and privacy committee is calling for the Canadian government to place political parties under federal privacy laws, The Canadian Press reports.
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EUROPE
EURACTIV reports EU negotiators have agreed on legislation prohibiting data localization. The bill will allow companies to store non-personal data in any location in the European Union.
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The French data protection authority, the CNIL, has fined Optical Center 250,000 euros after a “significant data leak” was discovered.
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The U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office has fined British Telecommunications 77,000 GBP for sending nearly 5 million nuisance emails without consent.
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